Looking to create a tournament list using a phantom, my question is who is better whisper or echo and why? And for what situations?

Which is better? Well neither one is really "better" than the other, both ships have their own strength's and weaknesses.

I would say whisper because of free focus after attacking, but I have played with echo enough to know that the free barrel roll/boost with the 2 bank can be quite deadly if you know how to fly it right.

If you have flown echo allot, I would suggest echo, otherwise take whisper.

some upgrades to consider:

Advanced cloaking device: Absolute must on any named phantom, a free cloak after an attack is something you do not want to pass up.

Tactician: Situational, but handing out free stress to enemies within range 2 can be very handy.

Sensor Jammer: Negating your opponents hits is always a plus.

Stygium particle accelerator: do your dice hate you? gain a free evade token!

Darth Vader: Kamikaze Phantom! suffer two hits to deal one crit to a ship. Take hull upgrade to use this effect twice! (or 3 times if you want to blow up your phantom)

I know there is a competition winning build that does revolve around Whisper, Sootnir Fel, and Colonel Jendon.

Jendon+STS-321

Fel+ Royal guard tie+PTL+auto thrusters+ stealth device

Whisper+ ???

Looking to create a tournament list using a phantom, my question is who is better whisper or echo and why? And for what situations?

I know a lot of people active on these forums prefer Echo over Whisper. I am not one of them. I love Phantoms and run them pretty regularly and Buzzsaw Whisper while not particularly original is personally my favorite. (VI, FCS, Gunner, ACD).

The difference really depends on how you want to kit them out and what roles you want them to fill.

I prefer very offensive builds, but in general:

Whisper gets a defensive bonus in the form of higher pilot skill (9 with VI) meaning she gets to be cloaked with a focus (+evade if you took it for her action) when most ships will be able to shoot back her.

Echo gets her defensive bonus in form of her decloaking ability. Using the soft 2 template gives her more unpredictable and extremely flexible arc dodging capability. The lower PS means VI isn't (imo) as crucial which frees up the EPT for more experimentation. I just read a build for Echo I really want to try, user rabid1903 has Echo kitted out with PTL, SPA and Recon Specialist which sounds like a lot of fun. Another poster FickleGreenDice swears by Intelligence Agent in all his Phantom builds.

At the end of the day the best Phantom pilot is going to be the one you feel most comfortable flying. If you find yourself cursing red dice a lot and find you have a hard time hitting things even with 4 attack dice (like me) I would suggest giving Buzzsaw Whisper a try.

A variation of the Buzzsaw has a Rebel Captive to dish out annoying stress.

A variation of the Buzzsaw has a Rebel Captive to dish out annoying stress.

Indeed.

My perfered Whisper build is this:

"Whisper" (32)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Fire-Control System (2)

Rebel Captive (3)

Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Lately I've been putting her with a loaded Vader and a AC Tempest. I keep Vader and the Tempest together and use Whisper to flank forcing my opponent to either attepmt to focus down Vader and his wingman (leaving their flank exposed to Whisper), attempt fo focus down Whisper (allowing Vader and the Tempest to come in behind them) or split to take both on at the same time.